In many countries, targeted ads aren’t allowed for kids. By forcing age verification, companies in the targeted ads business (like Meta) can shift liability away from themselves and rely on forced identity verification done by someone else. It means they get to advertise a whole lot more, since they can blindly trust the verification instead of having to be on the side of caution and advertise less.

This is why they have lobbied many states in America for age verification laws, and are the alleged main funding source for the campaigns trying to make this about child safety when it’s about their profits. And the governments support it because it means they can identify people online and suppress speech. It’s literally the fascist notion of merging corporate power and authoritarian government power.